Alan Nolan was named director of the Russellville Adult Education Center (RAEC) July 16 and has made a positive impact in his first few months.

“It’s nice to have a director that appreciates what we’re doing,” said Jackie Harris, RAEC instructor and Workforce Alliance for Growth in the Economy coordinator. “He lets us get our jobs done.”

Nolan, 45, has been in education for 20 years.

“It’s what I’ve always done,” he said.

He received a bachelor’s degree in history from Norfolk State University in Virginia in 1995 and a master’s degree in education leadership from Arkansas Tech University in 2008.

He worked as a teacher for nearly six years in Virginia before moving to Russellville in 2002, where he taught at the Secondary Learning Center (SLC) for three years.

Kristi, Nolan’s wife of 20 years, is from Russellville and Nolan said the decision to move was an easy one to make.

In 2005, Nolan was named SLC supervisor, a position he held for eight years until being named RAEC director.

Nolan said the RAEC staff immediately impressed him.

“I really enjoy working with this staff,” he said. “It amazes me how well they work together. When they come to me with a problem, they already have solutions in mind. I go to the Freedom House to help and everything I need is ready to go. It’s a huge blessing to have such a great team. The people here are really dedicated.”

Having a dedicated staff seems to be paying off. In the past two months, the center’s pass rate for the General Education Development (GED) test has been 80 percent, bringing the overall rate to 70 percent so far this year.

“The staff has been working hard and we’ve had great success because of it,” Nolan said.

Nolan, who has two children attending Russellville schools — Corey, a high school sophomore and Alyssa, a fifth-grader — praised the district for its role in helping the center.

“We’re fortunate to have an asset with Russellville School District,” he said. “If we need something, they’re there to help us.”

Nolan said making RAEC a success is a collaborative effort that is worth the hard work.

“Our end goal is to serve the community,” he said. “We want an educated community. We want people to use us as a resource to better their lives. Seeing people succeed is the best thing about my job.”